Sylvie Paillard
[email protected]
The remnants of a turn-of-the-century Brackendale hotel that sits on the corner of a Government Road development will be preserved, but stakeholders are still unsure how.
The chimney of the Bracken Arms Hotel, which burned to the ground in 1912, sits on the corner of a 12-acre lot that Westmana Development is currently turning into a single family home subdivision.
Westmana hired Cascadia Consulting as its process management firm. Consultant Peter Gordon has been discussing the chimney's fate with the Brackendale Farmers' Institute (BFI) and the municipality to determine the best way of preserving it.
"It's an old piece that's been sitting there a long time and has value to folks in a community that doesn't have a lot of heritage pieces," said Peter Gordon.
"In the early going, we ourselves thought about moving it to a different location on the property and using as a centerpiece for an entryway or something like that. But those discussions with the city didn't pan out."
The location is not the hotel's original site, and it's unknown when the chimney was moved there, according to Thor Froslev of the BFI.
And despite the fact that the hotel existed for only three years from 1909 to 1912, the BFI acknowledged the chimney's historical value with a commemorative plaque approximately 10 years ago.
The BFI offered to allow developers to move the chimney onto the BFI fair grounds just a few blocks away since it would allow residents and visitors to walk by instead of merely driving by the heritage piece.
But Cascadia and the district feared the move may irreparably damage the chimney.
"So currently we're having discussions with the city about simply leaving it in place and putting a little bit of landscaping around it," said Gordon.
The BFI is not adamant about how the structure should be preserved, said Froslev, adding that the institute knows very little about its history.
Discussions have been friendly and productive, said Gordon, and a plan should be finalized within a few weeks.
"I go back a long way with members of the Farmers' institute," he said. "I'm feeling quite optimistic that we'll come up with something that works for the city and works for the community and works for the developer."
